Article of furniture



Nov. 19, 1929. BURTON 1,735,851

ARTI CLE OF FURNITURE Filed Feb. 3, 1927 E57 6 g w at 22 I //V VE/v 70 R 0 f AW6 Patented Nov. 19, 1929 UNITED STATES.

RALPH BROMLEY BURTON, OF INDIANAPOIVJIS INDIANA ARTICLE OF FURNITURE Application filed February 8, 1927. Serial No. 165,696.

invention relates to knock-down articles of furniture and the construction shown is applicable to toy, juvenile or standard size a furniture. The construction permits these articles to be quickly and inexpensively made from plywood or other thin material and to be assembled, packed and shipped with a minimum of cost and effort. The few pieces are securely held together by mortice and tenon joints or b slots and tongues shown in the drawing il ustratin the construction and by the friction caused y the spring tension set up in one of the pieces when properly assembled. Glue, nails, pins and similar fastening devices are not used with this construction although two of the pieces may be permanently fastened together if desired, thus positively looking all pieces of the article in place.

The principle illustrated and described is readily adapted to other articles than chairs, such as tables, swings, etc., and, therefore, the invention is not limited to any style, shape or form of furniture. Other objects, advan-.

tages and novel features of my invention will appear later in connection with the detailed description, and will be particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing, which illus- 80 trates the use of my invention in a juvenile chair and its adaptability to rocking chairs, Fig. 1 is a perspective view. Fig. 2 IS a plan view showing the commode 0r two-purpose feature gained by using two interchangeable 85 seats. Fig. 3 is a rear elevation showing the locking strip that, when properly assembled,

provides the necessary locking friction against the chair back, due to the unnatural springing I of the strip when slipping the tongue on the chair back into its proper slot.

This view also shows thehole through which a bolt maybe slipped to permanently lock the entire structure. Figure 4 shows an economical method of cutting the side pieces while Fig. 5 shows how the back pieces may be laid out for economy. Fig. 6 shows the remaining pieces arranged to aid in their cutting by allowing one cut to entirely finishan edge of one piece while, at the same time, it partially fini es an edge of another piece. Fig.

shows how easily my invention lends itself to changed design or utility without the sacri fice of any advantages gained by the use of my construction.

The two purpose juvenile chair shown in Fig. 1 consists of a plain seat 1 or a commode seat 2, a back 3, two sides 4 and a locking strip 5. The plain seat 1, of which a plan is shown in Fig. 6, has two tenon or lug corners 6 on its front edge and two mortise grooves or slots 7 and a. large slot 8 on its back edge. The back 3 shown in plan in Fig. 5, has two tenon or lug corners 9 on its top while a wide tongue 10 is cut on the bottom. This tongue 10 may have a small hole 11 in it, if desired. The sides 4, shown in greater detail in Fig. 4, have mortises or slots 12 cut in the top edges, other mortises or slots 13 cut in the front edge, while on the rear faces a slot 14 large enough to accommodate strip 5, is cut. This slot 14, has a mortise or groove 15 cut in its bottomedge. The locking strip 5, more clearly shown in Fig. 6, has two tenons or lugs on its top edge as well as two more tenons or lugs on its bottom edge. These are numbered 16 and 17 respectively. Strip 5 has a mating hole 18 therein, with hole 11in back 3.

When assembling the chair, tenons or lugs 17 on strip 5 are fitted into-mortises or slots 15 in the sides 4. Tenons or lugs 6 on seat 1 are then fitted into mortises or slots 13 in sides 4 and next the mortises or slots 7 in seat 1 are pressed down over the tenons or lugs 16 on strip 5. An examination at this time, of the opening formed by slot 8 in seat 1 and the front edge of strip 5, will show this opening to be narrower than the tongue 10 on back 3, is thick, due to the location of slot 14 in sides 4. It therefore becomes necessary to enlarge the opening by bending strip 5 backward until tongue ,10 can be entered therein. Tenons or lugs 9 on back 3 can then be pushed into mortises or slotsv 12 on the sides 4. After back 3 has been firmly pushed downward into its proper location, the tend-' ency of strip 5 to straighten increases the friction between tongue 10 and itself, sufliciently to .firmly hold the back 3 in position. If, however, it is desied to more firmly fasten 7 the chair together, one may bolt back 3 and 00 strip 5 tightly together by bolting through holes 11 and 18, thus positivelypreventing the disassembly of the chair without first removing the bolt.

Fig. 2 shows the commode seat 19 which has identical tenons or lugs 6, mortises or slots 7 and large slot 8 with the plain seat 1, assembled in the chair, in the same manner used inassemblin plain seat 1. I

Fig. 7 shows sides 20, identical with sides 4 except for the rocker provision on the bottom edges, assembled in the chair in the exact manner described above. This all shows that the type of construction shown on the drawing and described above, lends itself nicely to the changing in utility of an article of furniture, without changing either the type of construction or themanner of assembly.

For equal strength, this type of construction of knock-down furniture, gives reater lightness and lends itself, thru possi le deadapted to pass sign of parts, to great economy of material than is possible to obtain in the use of the conventional construction.

This type of construction described above, shows to persons skilled in the art, that various articles of furniture may be quickly and easily assembled by housewives and other persons unskilled in the use of tools, and that the use to which such assembled articles may be put, can be changed at will by the quick and easy substitution of interchangeable parts.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim to have invented and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. .A knock-down chair, comprising a back, a seat, and two sides, some of said parts being provided with locking grooves and others with locking means engageable with said locking grooves to maintain the parts in desired relative positions, said seat being provided with an opening, a tongue on said back through the opening in said seat, and a locking strip extending between said-two sides andbearing on said tongue to create a frictional drag opposing removal of the tongue from the opening in said seat.

2. The combination in a knock-down chair, of two side pieces having horizontal slots in their front edges, vertical slots in the top edges, and slots in the rear edges, a seat member having projections on its front corner engageable in the slots in the front ed es of said side pieces, said seat member also eing provided near its rear corners with slots, a transverse locking strip having on its to edge projections enagageable with the slots in the rear corners of said seat member and near its ends pro1ec'tions for engagement with the slots in the rear edge of said side pieces, and a seat back having at its 'top projections for engagement with the slots in the top edges of the side pieces and having at its bottom a downwardly projecting tongue her In testimony signature.

rip. whereof, hereunto aflix my RALPH B. BURTON. 

